Ok so doing my test runs on the Drv8825 drivers they all work but I am not sure what I actually did wrong But I figure I have something messed up on a couple of my boards with solder joints and drawing to much current. a couple of them seem to be overheating and shutting down so I decided to scrap the home built Drivers and give some Saintsmart drivers a try with my C10 board . So I am feeling a bit crushed today. Oh well. On the bright side My Vacation until next year is going to be filled with fun ShapeOKO expansions..

Christmas vacation upgrade. Expanding ShapeOKO2 to a 1000 x 1800 monster. Wow this thing is big. Ok This was a lot more work than the stock shapoko was to build. Huge learning experience. Learned I miss counted how many insertion nuts I would need. Ran out ended up using 3/16" carriage bolts. Note.. This did work but only use if you are in a pinch which we were. They worked but was a royal Pain in the butt to space and move around.

What I did. I had 2 2 foot by 6 foot work benches. Well One of them ended up being a Donor for the base of this project. I cut off 9 inches from the height of my bench to get the work area of the CNC low enough that I could reach across with out having to get a stool to clamp or unclamp work pieces. I decided on trying to make the base as adjustable as possible so I used 3/8" 7" long carrage bolts through my 2x4 frame and up through 1x1 steal tubing I used 6 of them each bolt gives me an individual adjustment for aiding in leveling and support. I then used 1/2" emt clamps with a bit of bend in the end to clamp down the Shapeoko frame to the steal tubing. The Shapeoko frame is built from 20x40 extrusions 2-1800mm and 5-1000mm. 2-1000mm Maker slides and 2-1800mm maker slides. 2 pair of side supports from shapeoko.com. I use one sheet of Baltic birch 3/4" then 3/4" MDF waste hold down board. I staggered 1/4" t-nuts spaced 6 inches apart every 3 inches.

What I still need to get my final wiring done which is getting my limit switches wired and changing out the arduino and grbl shield to C10 board with 4 sainsmart drivers using Mach3. Hope to get this all done over the next week. I have it up and running right now on the Arduino. After getting all squared up I ran flat router bit accross my entire waste board surface to true everything up.

Today has been busy getting electronics upgrade put together. I had built a box to use as an enclosure and found that it would be way to small to house the new drivers, power supplies, Relay and break out board. I had an old In-win full tower computer case laying around. Starting looking at it and doing a bit of layout finding that it looked to be just what I was looking for. I mounted a piece of plywood to the removable motherboard tray then laid out all the steppers, 24V PS and 5V PS on that board. I cut out a plate to hold my axis connectors and place in where the mother board connections would go. There was a Perfect DB25 Knockout that the C-10 BOB mounted to perfectly. I got all of the Axis wires wired up, 24V wired in. Tomorrow I hope to get the rest of the wiring of the enclosure done. I hope by the end of the week to have limit switches wired in and working with Mach3.

Well Up and running today. Running Mach3 on the new Drivers. Wow what a difference faster and smoother. Gave it a major workout today. Making a memorial Plaque for my dads Funeral tomorrow. Did not turn out the way I wanted it to but will have to do with the time I had to do it in. CNC Ran for about 10 hours strait today. So was a great test of how the machine would run. I was extremely impressed with how easy Mach is to Jog and zero out for running jobs. Makes took changes a snap even without having my Homing Limit switches set up yet.

What I have left to do on my set up that I may be able to get to in a week or two. Get my limit switches hooked up and get my Solid State Relay working for turning my router on and off when running a project.

Well MPG just got here today. Not sure when I will get it going. Still have to get my limit switches wired up. Oh well all in due time I guess. Cold weather always slows everything down. Got a few things going on this weekend maybe be able to get out to the Garage on Sunday for a Bit.

So I have been wanting to stiffen up my frame. Being 1.8m definitly stock has flex in the Y. I had 2 braces on each Y but have felt I needed to beef it up a bit.
I ordered all of my stuff a few weeks ago to beef up my framing and now since I have found my self with extra time on my hands (Not by Choice) I started on the Surgery today.

So here is my order update for beefing up frame.
My sub frame is all 20x40 extrustions. I have 2 1800 running in the Y direction and 5 1000 that run in the X Direction. The end 2 end X extrustions only hold the end brackets with 2 screws on each side. So i decided to add a 20x60 at each end that way I can have 4 screws on each of the brackets. Since I am bolting 2 1800 extrusions to my Y maker slides I am still keeping my brackets but instead of them being screwed down to the wooden bed I wanted them bolted to my sub frame so I am adding in 4 500mm extrusions in the y direction between x bracing 20x40 extrusions. Then to reduce flex on my gantry I am bolting my maker slides to a 20x40 extrusion sandwiched inbetween them. This will make my gantry a 40x60 this should really help stiffen it up. I have gotten the main sub frame done and the 1800s bolted in the place on the Y and WOW can already feel a major difference in how much it has already stiffened up with out even adding in the mid span brackets.

I have not started on my hold down waste board area yet but instead of using 1/4-20 t nuts like I have been using I have ordered 8 pieces of T-Track that I am going to fasten down to my sub board. I have not decided on how I want to arrange my waste board yet but it will be in strips either anyway I do do it. I did not get to that today I will try and work on that tomorrow after I get done beefing up the Gantry.

I am adding some pictures of the progress so far.

Here is a picture of a conceptual layout of T-tracks for the new hold down brackets